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What happens to a municipal court judge and municipal prosecutor if a defendant is found guilty at a municipal trial, but the appeal court reverses the decision and finds the defendant not guilty?
Does appeal court decision go on the judge’s record and the prosecutor’s record?
Does anyone review their records?
No. Appeals are strictly review of the law as applied and do not re-litigate the case on the grounds of the Facts (i.e. Evidence and Testimony) but on the merits of the Law. The review of the application of the law is more on the decisions the judge made and not the prosecutor. Typically if the judge was in error, the case is vacated and remanded to the lower court to be tried again with the recommended corrections to avoid the past mistake. This essentially means that the case that was appealed never happened (thus removing Double Jeopardy concerns and allowing the Prosecutor to try the defense again, if he still has sufficient cause to retry. Many cases where new evidence is produced will do this as the evidence might not be enough to change a Jury Panel's mind.).
A successful first level appeal also unfetters the Prosecutor from Double Jeopardy restrictions. In the U.S., the ban on Double Jeopardy essentially bans the prosecutor from making an appeal after the verdict of the case is read, regardless of outcome (a finding of Not Guilty ends the whole matter then and their and the accused cannot be retried by that specific jurisdiction for that specific crime... They might have to deal with the Feds, but the Feds have specific guidelines on when they can try a case that has been tried by the state.).
There are a few cases where the successful appeal can be a career ending move on the prosecution and that is through some evidence of Prosecutorial Misconduct, i.e. the Prosecution did something wrong that resulted in the case being swung in his favor. This commonly is a Brady Disclosure Violation or failure on the Prosecution's part to turn over all evidence they have, including exculpatory evidence. This is considered a crime on the prosecution part and is egregious enough that the Bar will revoke their license to practice law.
For a good look at the Appellant process, check out Making a Murder on Netflix, specifically with an eye for the Season Two content which is about both subjects of Season One going through the Appellant phases of their case.
What happens to a municipal court judge and municipal prosecutor if a defendant is found guilty at a municipal trial, but the appeal court reverses the decision and finds the defendant not guilty?
Nothing. Judges and prosecutors have absolute immunity from liability for the conduct of their judicial functions.
Even if the conviction is set aside based upon prosecutorial misconduct, which is also an ethical violation, the prosecutor will only infrequently face any consequences since these cases are rarely referred to attorney regulation agencies and rarely rigorously pursued even when this conduct is referred to an attorney regulation agency.
Cases of judges being disciplined for misconduct are even more rare, even when misconduct is identified publicly.
Does appeal court decision go on the judge’s record and the prosecutor’s record?
Not really. If you really put some effort into reviewing courthouse record it wuld be possible to figure this out but no one is keeping track.
Does anyone review their records?
Only random interested members of the public and the press.
